Dictionaries

Rob Rothenburg <wlkngowl@unix.asb.com>

HTML markup for "special words" (acronyms and abreviations, proper
names-- people and geographical locations, definitions, 'foreign' words)
has been ambiguously addressed at best. In September '97 I posted a
suggestion to the list [1] recommending a possible solution using the
LINK element to reference a "dictionary file" that in HTML, that
consisted of a definition list for defined terms.

I came across RFC 2229, a "Dictionary Server Protocol", which may
provide an even better solution. The INS, DEL, Q and BLOCKQUOTE elements
in HTML 4.0 have the CITE attribute for referring to a URL as a citation.

Something similar could be done with the ABBR, ACRONYM and DFN [3]
elements where the citation refers to a dictionary server or a document
that contains the definition. This would supercede the previous
suggestions, and would be work well with older browsers and agents
which do not recognize citation attributes.

An optional reference to a dictionary or glossary (using the LINK
element) would also be useful.

How a browser (user agent) handles these citations is not specified.
An agent may display citations as hyperlinks, or provide a separate menu
of definitions. (An agent might even be configured to look in a default
dictionary server for definitions of uncited terms, or to override
citations in a document should the links be invalid or the server
unavailable.)

Multiple citations for a term in a document should be discouraged, but
not forbidden since there are times when an acronym or term may have
multiple meanings.

Pronunciation (aural style sheets) and other language-specific issues for
abbreviations and acronyms are not addressed here.

The document type returned by dictionary servers is also not addressed
here (nor is it addressed in [2] RFC 2229) although presumably in the
future a "definition markup language" will emerge. Note that that RFC
2229 is not an official standard.

Notes and References:

[3] The DFN element represents the "defining instance of the enclosed
term" (according to Sec. 9.2.1 of the HTML 4.0 specs) implying the first
use of a term in the context of a definition.

[4] What is missing is an element for marking up "proper names" (names
of people, geographic locations, institutions, or even scientific names
such as genus/species) and other special terms ("keywords" that may not
be appropriate for including in the META elements but useful for users of
a collection of documents).

DFN could cover some of these, and certainly
others could be used as standard links (the A element). Whether one
would like to mark these attributes for user agents (such as search
engines, or authoring tools which could be used to build an index) is a
separate issue not covered in the message.